A theology of the arts starts in the garden of Eden. God asked Adam and Eve to co-create with Him. He gave them domain (kratos=to help complete)–in giving them domain, He gave them freedom to create with Him—arrange things and even name things. He was not asking them to create from nothing; but to create with what He gave them to start with.

Creativity has to do with dominion. Part of what God asked them to do was to partner with Him by getting to know Him as He created. God brought the animals to Adam, and asked Him what he would name them–there was this pleasure in partnership from the beginning!

After the fall or rebellion of man, there came this necessity for a new creation. Jesus is the New Adam instilling the new creation in us. He came to restore the earth, but also to do what original man could not–to fully enjoy that creative communion with His Father!

As those invited into the Life of Christ, we are asked to enter into this creative communion once more. This radically effects our creativity! We are once again, able to create with Him, and enjoy that as a place of meeting Our God. Creativity is no longer off limits, but we have access to enter that play which God had with Adam before the fall. But even in a purer way. For Christ is the exact representation of The Father, so we can enter deeply into the wells of His Imagination!

The new creation is another way of looking at the arts. The Father started with His Son in making a new creation. In this creation, creativity was always used to reflect  The Father. And now we have become part of His new creation (2Cor5:17), so, we have “put on” His creativity and symbolic nature, and have full access to His Perception! For this reason, we can move into new levels of imaginative activity in Him! We can actually begin to move and dream in His Imagination!

Francis Shaeffer places Christ Lordship over the whole man as his foundation for looking at the arts. He is saying two things: Christ is Lord over ALL of Reality; and that Christ is Lord over every part of man–body, soul, imagination, his symbolic functions etc.. His Lordship starts with us, and then extends out through us into culture, or better yet onto cities and naitons, and our planet.

Full redemption of the whole person includes the full funtioning of the imagination or symbol maker of man; as this is healed, man is able to partner with Christ in His Perception, creating healed images of Reality; this becomes part of partnering with Christ in His Restoration! And we then get to participate in God’s healing of His Own symbolic expression in creating the earth and humanity!

Trying to just be relevant to culture or the world is not enough. We want to be restorers of our planet with Him! If relevancy is your foundational stone, you are going to stay lateral; but if Christ Lordship over the WHOLE of man including his image maker or symbolic function; and then through this healing, allowing us to partner with HIM in healing the symbolic level or imagination of the planet, there you have something deeper to start from.

God made the whole man; and the whole man is under redemption. Then He gave man dominion or lordship through HIM, the new Adam!–and this Lordship extends into 1)the arts or creative parts of ourselves 2) to the arts or creative realm in culture or cities or nations. We have a responsibility as those “in Him” to carry His Imagination into our culture, and be restorers of its imagination. As we allow Him to heal our own creativity, we are then able to enter in and be healers in our culture’s imagination! How thrilling, and what a great context and purpose for the arts! For we then can start to be projectors of heaven’s images onto earth.

Heaven’s images of our cities, nations and even our entire planet are meant to be in His likeness! “For we are His workmanship (his art, his poems) created in Christ Jesus..” (Ephesian 2:10) God made earth and humanity to express Himself. In this sense, the entire creation is just that–a creation, a piece of art made to express the Artist, who is God, the Creator! That is the ultimate context for our own creativity!

We were given dominion or rulership over the earth; we are then, once in HIM, asked to partner with Him in ruling the symbolic dimension, as well as the other parts of cities, nations and the whole earth–this is part of knowing Christ in His Rulership or dominion of the earth. His Lordship in the arts, means HIS IMAGES being projected onto cities and places and people–not the enemy’s. For too long the enemy has projected his images onto cities and people, Jesus will have HIS images placed on them, for we were made “in His Image” and meant to be signs or symbols pointing towards God!  As we, like David, become “living portents or symbols, we can also start to heal the imagnination of our cites, our nations, and of our planet!

Our friend Mike Ramsey in his recent newsletter challenged us again in talking about the prostitutionalization of the arts. Specifically, he is working in the art school world; but his comments could be applied out to the whole entertainment and arts worlds.

In the book of Joshua, the first city that is to be conquered was Jericho. The method of attack was a symbolic action. Symbol preceeds and illuminates general action, as God likes to communicate symbolically what He is up to before He just does it! Many artist are being called or stirred to “go in” now and start marching around Jericho. The levites–the symbolizers come in before the main armies, to prepare a way symbolically. We believe that this is exactly how God is working now, using the arts to go in a retrieve lands which are God’s, and prepare a way for His Kingdom, and even the general church, when it is unified, to enter and dwell in the land.

Recall also that Jericho was guarded by prostitution–you see Rehab living in its walls, but also that the ways of prostitution covered this city. So one of the first true enemies to displace in “the land” was prostitution.

Now it seems obvious, that the ways of prostitution are largely what the entertainment and arts worlds  are under, or “guarded by”. People and talent becoming products to sell and buy; but also, the sexual perversity that comes as a visible fruit of prostitution. It is easy to see both in the current state of the entertainment industry.

Prostitution is not just buying sex, but is also the way of enslaving others for your own pleasure or ends. You see that it is opposed to God’s way of gift giving–God gives us to one another as in marriage, which itself is the opposite of prostitution, and is often used to fight it–even on a personal level; conversely, prostitution takes whatever it wishes, and is therefore not able to receive it from His Hands or in His Way. When we prostitute, we are either using or being used–and many artist feel caught up in both!

It is our heart, that artist enter more fully their true context for living, as well as creating. And that they are then able to be “sent in” by God to combat the ways of prostitution guarding the gates of the arts world. Currently, the arts are being recovered by God as part of an overarching restoration of His Own symbolic function. When the symbolic is healed, you will see that things will begin to symbolize what they truly mean again.

In the garden, each tree symbolized the specific things which God had chosen to have them mean. You see that our ability to read what things symbolized was broken by the fall in the garden. But this is not a permanent state. Part of God restoring the arts, is about our larger relation to the creation and meaning. As we see already in the church, The Spirit of God is starting to restore the church’s understanding even of history itself, and this will continue until the restoration of His Symbolic is complete.

As you see in fashion, the enemy is at work placing false associations on everything from a woman’s body, to a child’s smile. Oswald Chambers called this “false associations”, and the enemy is vigilant in the art world teaching and assigning these false associations constantly. So that it is difficult to check out at the grocery store without seeing a false image of motherhood or womanhood in general. This is land which must be recovered. And it is not a task which the church has been able to do up til this point.

But as we see artist arising , not just making fresh and inventive work, but also teaching again what things are meant to be connected with, we see the emergence of not only a new aesthetic, but a more whole understanding. This is the start of the restoration of the symbolic on the earth, and the prophetic movement is also a part of this restoration. We are excited to be a part of displacing the ways of prostitution with His Ways! And to do so as artist, and symbolizers!

I want just to simply name the spiritual seasons, so we can locate ourselves. The way this was taught to me is unique, but the basics are an eternal pattern of growth. I see spiritual development as stages of knowing different parts of Christ. First, Christ as Deliverer; then as Teacher/ Rabbi; then as Son/ King. This final stage moves more and more into The Fatherhood of God.

The first season has to do with birthing. We are born out from under slavery, so that this first season is about knowing Jesus as Deliverer. As blind slaves, God knew us, but we did not know Him. When we are liberated by whatever means we came to know Christ, we first encounter Him as a deliverer or liberator. This is a very dependent moment in our journey, which is modeled by Moses coming into Egypt to free those in slavery under some form of oppression. This is the early church.

The second phase of spiritual development, seen in the wilderness and the Medieval Church is receiving the law or teachings of God. God must rebuild our foundations, to do this, we must be in some sort of wilderness or place in between where we were slaves, and where we are going–our promised land. This in-between space is a place of knowing Christ as The Teacher–giver of the law or ways of God. The knowledge of God enters us, and we begin to know His ways. This is many ways is all preparation for inheriting the promised land.

Here, in this third phase–i might call it the Galatians 4:1 phase, we come to see Jesus as King over the land–as Lord. And we start to experience our own kingship or lordship with Him. But also we start to know Him as the true Son who is given His Inheritance. We come to know His Rulership, and Power, Majesty and Might. This third phase is about occupying, possesing and cultivating our inheritance–the pleasant lines of our inheritances! This is the phase that some of the current church is just now entering. It is a time of retrieving the treasures and bounty unto The Son, and it is the time of knowing Him in His Labour and Suffering, as well as His Glory.

We are each meant to occupy our own uniquely shaped “lands” on earth. And it is His enjoyment when we press on into His Life so that we begin to allow His Kingdom to come in the dimensions of our particular domains! This is part of truly moving into our individual and collective callings as followers of Christ, and participators in the Divine Nature (as Peter put it)! But there is also a process of maturation into Him, for growth is an aspect of who God is–God makes things which mature and grow and reproduce. Our goal is to be fully in the season of growth He is leading us into! If we are not growing, we are not in the Living God!

These three stages are just broad strokes on a much more subtly painted canvas, but they offer a general map of spiritual development in terms of the unique parts of Christ we are getting to enter and know, and then reflect out onto the earth. Knowing what stage we are in, and also where we will be going helps keep hope alive, but also tells us which food to be eating in our hour!

People, things, places each have meaning clusters around them. To reattach the true cluster of meaning around each thing is part of God’s restoration of the earth.

On a city level, each city has come to be associated with certain ideas, images–Paris, for example, is associated with romance, passion, beauty etc. Berlin with might or strength, decision making. A false association placed on Berlin from the war is abusive use of power. But we can see that this is not a true association. The fact that it is mighty or powerful city does not necessarily mean it is also an abusive city.You see in our time a real battle in the realm of what things mean

Jesus is the light, which in part is the understanding of what things mean. He is working to reattach things to their true meaning clusters, so that it is clear, that, for instance, woman’s body is not associated with evil. Or bread with death.

Man cannot live on bread alone. We eat and we drink daily. We fast from food at certain points. What do food and drink symbolize? Jesus understood that things have a symbolic dimension of meaning. He knew what bread symbolized. The nature of symbols is that each thing in life has a cluster of symbolic meaning surrounding them. Bread or food is not just an allegory, but symbolizes a cluster of associative meanings.

The church has largely not understood the nature of the symbolic. Even the medieval cathedrals were largely allegory only and less metaphore. Metaphore radiates more levels of meaning than allegory. The lion is not just Jesus or David, but also Kingship itself, regality, strength with wisdom etc. There is from each thing in life a stream or circle of symbolic associations surrounding them. Red symbolizes more than blood or life. It also symbolizes passion, verocity, vibrancy, things of the heart-emotions and on and on. But not on and on forever–there is a semantic ending to these associations.

One thing does not mean everything. God is a God of distinction. Each thing has a distinct ring of associations surrounding it. This is why art works. That yellow tree does not mean everything. It has specificity. What it symbolizes has a boundary. But this boundary is much further out than is commonly assumed. This is why we have art–to remind us that there is more to reality than this=that. That there is a symbolic level or dimension of meaning to life!

We often accept false symbolic associations. Advertizing is full of them-where we see woman’s body associated with a product, or a motorcycle. It is good to break down these false associations and question them. Part of renewing our minds is to mend the breach between things and what they actually symbolize! To re-cluster the true ring of associations which a thing was meant to mean. Much of the mission of art is to teach true associations–ie to teach us what things truly symbolize.

Pornography is a great example of clearly false associations. Woman’s body equals power, enslavement, domination, secrecy, and a host of other false associations. One way to fight porn is to reattach true associations to woman’s body. Take off the old associations, put on the new. If we, for example, were abused by the opposite sex, we probably have false associations around them. Often these false associations are the same as the ones in pornography, so we are drawn to the reinforcement of these false clusters of meaning around the opposite sex. We then have to take off these false associations and put on the new truer ones. This process is a healing of our symbolic level of perception, so we can see truly, and perceive accurately.

There are false associations and limited ones–as i mentioned above as allegory. Allegory says lion equals strength. But it stops there–a bit short of all the other aspects of what lion symbolizes. Allegory is like the first step, but then we must go out into the actual symbolic dimension of meaning to glean the fullest sense of what is being communicated. Symbol is, in the end, a part of communication. God desires to communicate Himself. The symbolic dimension is one aspect of this communication.

In our times, there is war in the symbolic realm. We see this in the early 20th C in war propaganda, where artists were ask to make one to one associative messages supporting this or that agenda. But we also see it more subtly in marketing. Our battle is to reattach the complexity of what God is trying to communicate through people, cities and nations–His fullest revelation about Himself-to the world we see around us. Jesus came to break down many dividing walls–one is between things and what they symbolize. He wants to reconcile things and what they truly mean. We, as artists, are partners with Him in this task of mending this gap, and healing the imagination of the planet.

This morning the barges are singing like old whales in the bay

Invisible but for this ancient sound of lurching horn through fog–Angelic husks in ground cloud covering

Or metallic beast left ramming into her shores?

I’m not sure,

But today, The sea lions applaud along the shore

In skipping, flipping patterns of joy, and they want more-an encore

And so do I!

Shepherding the mystery of the symbolic. That God also symbolizes Himself, even before He acts. The Levites go in first, and do a ritual, which brings in the spiritual Reality, then the fuller incarnation comes! That the artist go first, and open the portals, so that the rest of the tribes can enter the reality of the thing.

Even the whole act of the cross was a great symbolic gesture of things to come, and the eventual completion of the restoration.

To be a father in the arts, is to consider the symbolic nature of God–why He speaks and reveals Himself in symbol, and then makes us in His symbolizing image. There is always this dance between the literal and the many spokes of the symbolic. Few have written adequately about the nature of the symbolic. But clearly this is an aspect of The Creator!

God communicates. One level of this communication is the symbolic level. This is the area which has most fascinated me throughout the years, and is still the area I meet Him within. I am able to disciple people and cities most directly through their imaginations–through their symbolizing function. It is, to me, so direct! If we are to disciple the whole person, and allow our entire selves to be formed by Christ, then this area of the imagination is a huge area of neglected Lordship in our lives!

Christ is Lord over all of Reality–every dimension, including His symbolic dimension!!

Last year’s christmas was for us about the starlight in the story. It was about the range of radiance and constellational patterns made by stars, and why God chose to express Himself as starlight-esp in the way of this story, as a signal of the birth of The Son. It was a meditation of varying degrees of glory from a single source–His Star. This year, we are meditating on the wise ones from the east. The whole way of God that is the east–what it says of Him, and the nature of its silence.

Last year, we expressed our exploration by having disco balls and euro club lights, projected images onto the house, and lots of swirling pools of different types of light (again, exploring star light). It was frenetic, and had motion and sound activated lighting–the swiss machine shooting 12 different patterns onto the barn, activated by kid claps and even laughter.

This year, I see less pools of motioned light as last year, and more still streaks of single colors. More about the inner life of wisdom, and the gift of being able to examine each element distinctly.  I see more of a cubist tokyo Jesus this year. I would love to do a nativity with just the wise men in it–to meditate on the fact that the baby actually made the wise men, so is reflected in their questing!

As I walk around with Jesus as the backdrop for everything—I am able to see what each thing truly is—whether a city, nation or person, or even a street corner, a train station…Jesus is my walking meditation, my transparency, my filter-HE comes into the illusion and bleeds, making it Real again. He incarnates in the samsara.

There was a city once, i didn’t know how to love her-i was a boy. Then I came back as a man, and i could see what she needed. After I felt bad for not blessing her, i decided to do what i could to help her come into her fullness.